Cargo transit costs are a burden that affects the price of most goods. Many goods must be shipped several times before reaching the ultimate buyer—from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to buyer. A great deal of this transit is by tractor-trailer. Further, there is a need to find loads both to and from the point of destination to maximize use of the trailer and increase cost efficiency.
To minimize transit expenses, various attempts have been made to utilize a second floor or deck in the containers, such as is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,343,401 to Paulyson. Paulyson discloses the use of a number of crossbeams supported between opposed mounting tracks. The crossbeams can be supported on the tracks at a selected height. Track sections are mounted transversely to the crossbeams. In use, the crossbeams are all at the same height so that wheeled cargo of the same size may be stored on the tracks via a ramp extending from the loading dock to the track deck and wheeled vehicles may be stored below the second deck. The Paulyson system, as disclosed, is limited to a single use of wheeled vehicles and is not adaptable for other cargo. With Paulyson, the second deck is necessarily at the same height to accommodate equal sized wheeled vehicles both above and below the second deck. This limits the usefulness of the system for other cargo and cargo of differing sizes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,524,055 to Overbye reflects a system similar to Paulson—a second deck for supporting motorized vehicles consisting of three narrow spaced tracks running the length of the trailer, mounted on crossbeams secured to logistics posts. Other examples of similar systems include U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,222 to Blodgett and U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,745 to Anderson.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,966,510 to Johnson, Jr. and U.S. Pat. No. 2,432,228 to S. De Lano disclose a second deck with a front section fixed in height and a back section pivotally mounted to be used as a ramp until loaded. When the back deck section is loaded, it is pivoted to its transit position with a motor vehicle supported above it, permitting another motor vehicle to be loaded below the back deck section. U.S. Pat. No. 6,368,034 discloses a similar system except there is no front second deck section. U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,246 discloses an entire second deck that pivots for loading and unloading of wheeled cargo.
Some trailers, such as those made by Kenodyne, are equipped with just crossbeams and logistics posts and are used to transport palletized cargo which is directly stacked on the crossbeams. Each pallet must be secured to the crossbeams, which is time consuming. Further, not all pallets are of the same size and some pallets may not be able to be supported by the crossbars, limiting use of the crossbars to support cargo.
Other trailers, such as those provided by Ancra, utilize a series of rectangular, longitudinally spaced deck sections pivotally mounted along the interior side walls of a trailer, about mid-height. The deck sections are stored in a vertical position but pivot inward towards the center of the trailer into a horizontal position supported on cross beams. However, these deck sections are fixed in place and cannot be moved without special tools, limiting the adjustability of the deck height.
There remains a need for a modular deck system that can be quickly adjusted to provide a single level deck at a desired height, a ramp for loading and unloading cargo, or a set of discrete deck sections capable of supporting cargo of different sizes, shapes and types to increase transport efficiencies.